


Overwatch and Oversight

by holbytlanna



Category: MacGyver (TV 2016)
Genre: Bless Jack Dalton, Character Analysis, Gen, James MacGyver's A+ parenting, Parental Jack Dalton (MacGyver TV 2016), We Hate James MacGyver In This House Y'all
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-29
Updated: 2020-12-29
Packaged: 2021-03-10 22:48:10
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 366
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28414887
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/holbytlanna/pseuds/holbytlanna
Summary: A look into the differences between watching over and overseeing.
Relationships: Jack Dalton & Angus MacGyver (MacGyver TV 2016)
Comments: 14
Kudos: 35





	Overwatch and Oversight

Overwatch. It’s a military term, a tactic where one friendly unit ‘watches over’ another. Providing cover fire, scouting ahead. Protecting.

The word itself can mean to exhaust oneself by watching. To literally over-watch. And sometimes Jack does that. He’s been known to wear himself into the ground making sure Mac is safe. Looked after. Watched over. 

It can also mean to watch through the night. That’s an older definition, but applicable too as Jack often finds himself holding vigil at Mac’s hospital bedside, or holding him through nightmares. And sometimes, the night is more metaphorical. When Mac goes through rough patches, when his thoughts are too loud, his memories threatening to drown him, Jack is always there to ground him. To keep him from falling. To pull him out of the darkness in his mind, in his soul.

To support by fire. Perhaps the most literal, vivid description of what exactly an Overwatch is. Jack covers Mac in the field. Jack laughs with Mac around a blazing firepit. Jack knows when to be firm with his reckless young partner. And hell hath no fury like Jack Dalton when his boy is hurt.

  
Oversight: noun. One who supervises. Alternatively, a failure to notice or to do something, an omission or error due to carelessness. 

James is not the one taking care of Mac. James is not the one who waits by his bedside amid beeping monitors and IV lines. James is not the one celebrating and playing charades around a fire. James is not the one who taught Mac how to drive, or to use a straight-razor, or to ride a horse. James is not the one watching Mac’s back, keeping him safe.

Oversight oversees the doings of the Phoenix Foundation. He looks on, impartially. Putting the needs of the agency and the country above those of any individual agent. 

Even the one who shares his last name. 

The one he abandoned, years ago, overlooking a young boy’s grief and anger and talent and genius to focus on his own. He looked on, overseeing that boy grow into a man. Not watching, but seeing. 

To watch is an action. To see is not.

Love is an action.


End file.
